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HOUSING OCCUPANCY AND UTILISATION

The proportion of Australian households that own their own home, with or without a mortgage, remained stable between 2011–12 and 2013–14. This followed a significant fall in the proportion of owner households between 2009–10 and 2011–12 from 69% to 67%.

The proportion of Australian households who rented their dwelling also remained stable between 2011–12 and 2013–14 at 31%.

As shown in Graph 2, since the first Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) in 1994–95, the proportion of Australian households that own their own home with or without a mortgage has declined from 71% in 1994–95 to 67% in 2013–14 and the proportion of households that were renting from a private landlord has risen from 18% in 1994–95 to 26% in 2013–14.

Annotation(s): Survey not run in 1998–99, 2001–02, 2004–05, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2010–11 or 2012–13. Values have been interpolated for these years.

Source(s): Graph data SIH

Numerous factors are likely to have influenced the fall in the proportion of Australian households who own the home that they occupy. These factors include increased household mobility and changing household formation patterns, such as couples partnering and having children later. It is also likely that economic factors, principally the cost of purchasing a house, are having an effect on home ownership levels, especially for households with younger household reference persons (that is, a household with a reference person under 35 years).

The fall in total ownership reflects a decrease in the proportion of households that owned their dwelling outright, from 42% in 1994–95 to 31% in 2013–14, as shown in Graph 1. Over the same period there was an increase in the proportion of households that owned their dwelling with a mortgage (from 30% in 1994–95 to 36% in 2013–14).

Households with a younger household reference person have seen significant falls in home ownership. In 2013–14, just over a third (34%) of all households with a reference person under 35 years were owner occupiers, a decrease from 48% in 1994–95.

Since 1994–95, the proportion of owner occupiers with a reference person aged 35 to 54 years has declined from 77% to 68% in 2013–14. This has been accompanied by an increase in the proportion of renter households (from 21% to 30%) from 1994–95 to 2013–14 for this age range.

The proportion of households with a reference person aged 55 years and over that own their own home however has remained stable over this time period at around 83% in 2013–14.

Footnote(s): (a) Includes other landlord type, which account for about 1% of all renters in 2013–14

Source(s): Graph data SIH

In 2013–14, households had an average of 2.6 persons per household and 3.1 bedrooms per dwelling. This remained stable between 2011–12 and 2013–14.

As shown in Graph 3, since 1994-95 there has been a decrease in the average household size from 2.7 to 2.6 persons per household. The average dwelling size has increased over this period, from 2.9 to 3.1 bedrooms per dwelling.

Annotation(s): Survey not run in 1998–99, 2001–02, 2004–05, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2010–11 or 2012–13. Values have been interpolated for these years.

Source(s): Graph data SIH

Around 78% of households had at least 1 bedroom spare in their house, according to the Canadian National Occupancy Standard of housing utilisation. This is similar to 2011–12. For more information on CNOS see the ‘Explanatory Notes’ section of this publication.